Device for affixing stamps and labels



(No Model.) Y Y Y H. CAMPBELL.

DEVICE PoE AFEIXING STAMPS AND LABELS. No. 486,430. 'Patented Nov. 22, 1892.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HENRY CAMPBELL, OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND.

DEVICE FOR AFFIXING STAMPS AND LABELS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 486,430, dated November 22, 1892.

Application filed November 2l, 1891. Serial No. 412,598. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Beit known that I, HENRY CAMPBELL, a citizen of the United States, residing at Baltimore city, in the State of Maryland, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Devices for Aflixing Stamps and Labels; and I do declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to the letters and gures of reference marked thereon, which form a part of this specification.

My present improvements relate to the means for feeding and moistening the stamps and to the devices for severing them from a sheet and uniting them to the envelope.

It is the object of the invention to provide a simple and inexpensive apparatus, whichy shall work rapidly and withy convenience to the operator, and by which the stamps may be used from the sheet in which they are sold.

With these ends in view my invention consists in the parts and combinations thereof, hereinafter particularly set forth and claimed; and in order to make the same more clearly understood I have shown in the accompanying drawings means for carrying it into practical effect Without, however, limiting its application to the exact construction or machine which, for the sake of illustration, I have delineated.

In said drawings, Figure 1 is a plan view, partly in section, of astamp-afxing machine embodying my improvements. Fig. 2 is a vertical sectional view of the same. Fig. 3 is a transverse section. Fig. 4 is a perspective view of the lower side knife. Fig. 5 is a perspective View of the part constituting the upper side and end knives.

Referring to the drawings, 1 indicates the base of the machine, consisting of a metallic casting or other suitable material, the top of which forms a table or rest on which the sheet of stamps S being used rests and over which it is fed.

2 is an upward extension, bracket, or standard carried by the base 1 and adapted to support certain of the Working parts.

3 is a lateral or horizontal extension for the same purpose. Beneath these extensions or brackets a space is left, as indicated at 4 in Figs.2 and 3, through which the envelopes to be stamped are passed. Such an envelope or letter is shown at 5 in Fig. 1. On the side next the table 1 a groove is formed, as indicated at 6, extending horizontally between the table and the bracket 2, along which groove the sheet of stamps is adapted to pass. Said sheet is held and fed by upper and lower feedrolls 8 and 9, mounted on axes 10 and 11 in the bracket 2 and base 1, respectively. These rolls are adapted to engage the main portion of the stampsheet.

12 and 13 indicate supplemental rolls adapted to engage the row of stamps which is at the edge of the sheet and which is first used. The lower roll 13 is situated in a well or water-reservoir 14, formed with or attached to the base 1, and is covered with felt 15 or equivalent absorbent material. 'lhe stamp-sheet being fed through the machine with the gummed side down the latter Will be moistened and prepared for aftlxing to the letter bythe water carried up from the well by the absorbent material 15. It Willbe understood thatif the Well be charged with gum an uugummed sheet of stamps or labels may be used. Perforations 35] through the roll 13, which is hollow, en-

ables the felt to be thoroughly moistened from the inner as Well as fromV the outer side and counteracts the tendency in starting the machine to insufciently moisten the rst stamp. The upper face of the sheet is engaged and pressed upon the roll 13 by a felt or other soft facing o r covering 16 carried by the roll 12.

17 18 indicate stationary cutting devices, knives, or plates secured to the base 1 or to brackets or extensions thereof by screws 19. In the construction shown the knife 17 is mounted upon the reservoir 14, which, in effeet, is an extension of the base. The knives are situated at right angles to each other, or substantially so, that marked 18 being parallel With the direction of feed, and the knife 17 being crosswise thereof. The latter is adapted to sever or assist in severing the stamp to be affixed from the succeeding stamp and the former to cut the stamp from the body of the sheet. The knives are provided with suitable means for their adjustment and are spring-mounted, so as to accurately and IOO closely tit the upper knives. knife 18 is carried by aspring-plate 20, which tends to hold it against the corresponding upper knife. One of the side knives is slightly inclined or beveled relative to the line of feed or relative to the edge of the other knife. For instance, the knife 18 may be beveled, as at 39, Figs. 1 and 4. 'lheknives are thus enabled to give a scissors cut, the spring 2O keeping the edges in contact. The crossknife 17 may be similarly mounted or maybe rigidly fixed to the base 1. I prefer,however, to make the knife 17 adjustable, its position relative to the oscllating knife being accurately determined by screws 19. The adjustmentof the knife 18 is not so essential,this knife being mounted upon ayieldingplate; butits position may be determined by slightly bending said plate or by tightening or loosening the screws, by which said plate is aliiXed to the base. The upper cutting devices or knives are shown at 21 22. They are carried by a presser 23 and may be formed in a single piece of steel i11- tegral with the presser or may be separate and attached thereto. In the construction shown the knife 22 is integral with the presser, and the knife 21 is aseparate piece fixed thereto by screws 36, by which it may be adjusted accurately to the knife i7. A spring 37 holds the knife 2l against the knife 17 with a yielding pressure. In order to insure that the knives 21 17 shall not fail to completelysever the stamp, I form them with corrugated or serrated edges, as shown, the projections of one knife entering the recesses of the other, as seen in Fig. 1. These corrugations correspond in number substantially with the perforations between the sheets. One of the knives being movable toward the other in a direction transverse to the horizontal plane in which the knives meet it will be seen that at the instant the paper is caught between the serrated knives it will not be entirely unsupported and free to bend down without being severed. On the contrary the lower knife will by the projections of its serrated edge so support the sheet that, being unable to bend down, the stamp will not fail to be separated.

In the construction illustrated the central part of the upper knife plate forms the presser proper which carries down and affixes the severed stamps. The presser and upper cutting devices are preferably carried by a lever 24, which is pivoted at 25 in the extension 3 and which is lifted by the spring 26.

Various devices may be employed for forcing the lever 24 downward to perform the cutting operation. I prefer to use a handlever 27, pivoted at 2S in the bracket 2 and having an arm 29, which engages a rubber or cork buffer 30 in the presser 23 or in the presserdever.

The feed movement is effected by a pawl 31, pivoted to the hand-lever and held by gravityor byspring-pressure against a ratchetwheel 32 on the shaft 10. The friction of the stamp-sheet rotates thelower rolls and shaft;

To this end the.

but, if preferred, the upper and lower shafts may be geared together. Backward movement of the feeding devices is prevented by the pawl 33. The length of feed Will be the width (or length) of an individual stamp, and is regulated by the distance to which thehandlever rises. A suitable adjustable stop-such as a bar 34- is employed to limit such movement.

In operating the machine the letters to be stamped are passed in succession byhand or by any well-known or suitable feed device through the space 4. As each letter reaches the proper point with the part to which the stamp is to be aiiixed beneath the presser the hand-lever 27 is depressed. The stamp-sheet is preliminarily introduced into the machine, as indicated in dotted lines in Fig. 1, the first or bottom row of stamps being placed in line with the rolls 12 13. The feed devices are then turned by hand--as, for instance, by a thumb-nut or wheel 38 on the shaft 10so as to carry the right-hand lower stamp under the presser and beyond the knife 17. The exact preliminary position of the stamp to be affixed depends upon the adjustment of the feed, the ultimate requirement being that as the presser descends and the upper and lower knives meet the upper and left-hand boundaries of the stamp shall coincide with the edges of the longitudinal and cross knives, respectively. The severed stamp is by such movement of the presser, which is continued until the face of the letter is reached, carried down and affixed firmly to the envelope.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is- 1. In a stamp-aiixing machine, the combination of two pairs of knives at right angles to each other and adapted to sever the stamp from the corner of a sheet, one pair of said knives having a shear cut and the other pair being serrated, substantially as set forth.

2. The combination,with a lever, of a stampaiiixing presser and knives at right angles to each other carried by and oscillating with said lever and corresponding knives for the opposite side of the stam p-sheet, substantially as set forth.

3. In a stamp-aft'lxing machine, the combination, with a presser, of a severing-knife having a serrated edge and a corresponding knife for the other side of the stamp-sheet, said knives having corresponding and re-entering seri-ations and one of them being movable toward the other transversely to the plane in which the serrationslie as the knives meet, substantially as set forth.

4. The combination, with cutting and affixiug devices, of feeding and moistening rolls in line with said devices and feed-rolls beyond and parallel with the moistening-rolls for the main portion of the stamp-sheet, substantially as set forth.

5. The combination of the knives 17 and 18, the corresponding knives 21 22, the lever 24, the hand-lever 27, the feed-rolls, the ratchet IOO IIO

32, and the pawl 3l, connected With and op- 7. The combination, with cutters at right erated by said hand-lever, substantially as angles to each other, of an oscillating lever set forth. having at its side a cutter and having at its 6.71m a machine for aftlxing stamps and endaspring-supportedcutting-plate,substan- 15 5 labels, the combination of a stationary knife tially'as set forth.

or cutter, a knife at right angles thereto, a In testimony whereof I affix my signature in spring supporting the latter knife, and an ospresence of two Witnesses.

cillating lever carrying cutters at right angles HENRY CAMPBELL. to each other and adapted to co-operate with Witnesses: 1o the first-mentioned cutters to sever a stamp H. N. LOW,

from a sheet, substantially as set forth. F. J. BENJAMIN. 

